The Queen’s Gambit Defies Every Frustrating ‘Strong Woman’ Trope
I don’t think I’ve ever sat through a full game of chess, but I breezed through the entirety of The Queen’s Gambit with the rapture of someone who understands the move from which Netflix’s new miniseries gets its name. (I still don’t, sorry.)
Set in the late 1950s to early ’60s, The Queen’s Gambit spans the adolescent life of Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), an orphan with no prospects, a haunted past, and only one thing going for her: a remarkable ability. Taught chess by a janitor in the same orphanage that kicked off her rampant addiction to tranquilizers, Beth uses the only gift she’s ever had to make a better life for herself. She enters tournament after tournament, enamoring and befuddling the chess community—almost completely made up of men—as she fights her way to the top. You know how this type of story goes.
Except, maybe you don’t. While the chess matches themselves were exhilarating to witness—yes, they really were—it was the relationships Beth forms throughout the series that truly gave this stunning period piece unexpected soul. In particular, the tender relationship between Beth and her adoptive mother, Mrs. Alma Wheatley (Marielle Heller), was increasingly heartening—and heartbreaking—to watch develop over the course of seven episodes.
This is just one of the ways creators Scott Frank and Allan Scott—who adapted the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis for TV—succeeded in telling Beth’s story without reducing her to a one-dimensional “strong woman” or defining the female experience based on the actions of men, a feat that is...unusual…when cultivated by a team of them.
The most refreshing thing about Beth’s triumphs and tribulations was that they were her own. I found myself continually, and thankfully unnecessarily, bracing for Beth’s childhood trauma to be compounded by her adoptive father and each surprisingly sexy chess player she found herself alone with. The relief I felt when Beth remained unscathed and befriended as opposed to used and hurt was palpable. When I tell this to Taylor-Joy, she immediately understood.
“It’s possibly true for most people that you can be your own worst enemy,” Taylor-Joy said over the phone from Belfast, where she's shooting The Northman (Taylor-Joy was most recently tapped to fill Charlize Theron's shoes as Furiosa in the next Mad Max spin-off). “Beth is battling her demons so hard that even if everything else outside of that feels okay, she can be in a really rough place. I definitely connected with that.”
In fact, Beth is not only allowed to embrace and enjoy sex throughout the series; she’s given the freedom to experiment and, frankly, be awkward. “I love Beth’s sexual journey. I think it’s so honest and kind of funny and interesting,” Taylor-Joy continues. “Some of the moments in the show when I feel the most, like, ‘Oh Beth, you’ve behaved badly,’ is how callously she treats some of the men in her life. I’m like, ‘Beth, you need to learn a bit of empathy—that was straight up not cool.’”
Of course, that doesn’t mean Taylor-Joy’s input wasn’t necessary to help shape Beth as a woman. “[Frank] at one point was worried that she was getting too glamorous,” the actor explains. “I was like, ‘It’s in the show that she loves clothes. She can also be a chess champion. They are not mutually exclusive.’” (Oh yeah, did I mention that the costumes and sets could rival those of Mad Men?)
“He was like, ‘Sorry, of course!’ and totally down to go with it,” Taylor-Joy continues. “I’ve never been very good at keeping my opinions to myself when it comes to my work, and I’m lucky that people seem to want them.” She’s like Beth in that way. “Beth is very confident in chess and not that confident in real life, and I definitely feel that in my work. Where I feel most confident in my opinions and what I have to contribute is definitely on set, and then the rest of my life I can get a bit more wavy—but on set I’m like, ‘No, no, no. I know what I’m doing.’”
That much was absolutely clear.
The Queen's Gambit is available now on Netflix.
Emily Tannenbaum is an entertainment journalist, critic, and screenwriter living in L.A. Follow her on Twitter.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
